Beware of This Recurring Free Laptop Scam!

There are many online competitions and promotions, and we notice social media promotions for laptops, etc., especially targeting students. But unfortunately, there are many online scams in the guise of such promotions. This is our investigation related to such an online scam for free laptop giveaways for students.

Social Media Posts

We noticed viral messages titled “Students Laptop Scheme-2024” on Facebook and WhatsApp, claiming that a scheme is available to offer free laptops to all students who cannot afford a laptop & the student who needs a laptop for educational purposes. The message says that this year, the plan is to giveaways as many as 960,000 free laptops worldwide.

2025 Update:
In mid-2025, the exact same message resurfaced again, with minor wording changes, such as replacing “2024” with “2025” and a different link:

“The Applications for the Students Laptop Scheme 2025 Is Available
This scheme is open to all students who for financial reasons are not in a position to purchase a laptop of their own and are in need of laptop in their level of education.
In 2025 Over 960,000 students will be given free laptop to enhance their learning
Application has began and students that have applied have started getting their laptops
Register and apply here
https://hd.ke/Students-FREE-LAPTOP”

This version is again being widely circulated across WhatsApp.

The viral message, which was shared along with a link to apply and avail of this offer, can be seen below.

“The Applications for the Students Laptop Scheme 2024 Is Available

This scheme is open to all students who, for financial reasons, are not in a position to purchase a laptop of their own and are in need of a laptop at their level of education.

In 2024, Over 960,000 students will be given free laptops to enhance their learning

Application has begun, and students that have applied have started getting their laptops

Register and apply here
https://br.ke/Students-FREE-LAPT0P”

The same message is going viral on WhatsApp in various parts of the world, and the same message was, in fact, shared in 2023 as well.

Facebook | Archived

Fact Check

We searched the mainstream media to determine whether such worldwide free laptop giveaway programs were announced as claimed by the social media posts. However, we were not able to find such laptop donation programs.

After that, we directed our attention to the URLs shared in these messages. The links are often shortened or use vague domain names, a method frequently employed by scammers. For example, in the 2025 version of the scam, the link leads to “scholar.hight.today”, which on Whois lookup was found to be registered in 2023 with all registrant details hidden behind a privacy protection service. The domain also uses nameservers commonly associated with suspicious or low-trust websites. These are all typical signs of phishing or fraudulent intent.

Therefore, we request users follow safety tips while browsing online and have an updated antivirus and firewall software installed on devices to protect against such malicious attempts.

We also suggest you not proceed any further, but only to find out more about this scam, we proceeded to the malicious website.

The first form requests the name, education level, required laptop brand, and age range. After entering these details, confirmation of the name was requested, and there were fake testimonies on that page.

After that, a display is shown which says that approval has been granted to receive a free laptop. However, like many other scams, the final step requests to share the link with many other WhatsApp contacts/groups.

A Whois lookup of the domain shows that the registrant country was Iceland in January 2022 and is set to expire in January 2024.

Here is Factcrescendo Sri Lanka’s fact check on a similar scam that went viral in 2022 in Sri Lanka, claiming to be a Free laptop offered by the government.

Free laptop giveaway schemes by the Indian government also went viral recently, and here is the Indian Press Information Bureau’s clarification on fake viral messages.

Follow us and stay up to date with our latest fact checks.

Facebook | Twitter |Instagram | Google News | TikTok

Conclusion

The viral text message claiming a free worldwide laptop giveaway in 2023, 2024 and 2025 is false. Unfortunately, similar fake campaigns have been shared many times and were viral in 2021/22 as well. We request social media users be highly cautious in dealing with such scammers along with links to malicious websites, which can put your sensitive information at risk and pose threats to your electronic devices.